Tears of joy from the other side of the world
As I start to write this post, I am sitting in my now familiar dorm room in Tokyo, having just taken part in my first classes as an exchange student and marked three weeks of living in Japan. About 15 minutes ago, I defeated the Ender Dragon on the Minecraft world I started late last year, as much to experience the game on my fancy new laptop as I wanted an escape from a particularly exhausting point in my life.
I've never read The End Poem in its entirety. Or, if I have, it was so long ago that I remembered nothing beyond the opening line. But I knew I wanted to watch it through as a marker of progress in the world itself, and because I know that many people hold it dearly and in high regard. But, needless to say - and this has become a delightful new recurring theme in many of my recent ventures consuming media such as music and games - I ended up rather teary-eyed reading the beautiful words of Julian Gough slowly passing down my screen.
The poem speaks firstly of pride - a pride from the two speakers in the poem of the player for their achievements in their world, and from the player themselves for their creativity and feats in their time playing the game. But not long after the speakers shift to tell a deeply human story; how each and every person is so unique and powerful and deserving of love & joy, capstoned with the ever-famous line of
"and the universe said I love you"
And reading these lines, and receiving these messages of life and creation from my now familiar dorm room in Tokyo, I couldn't help but resonate with them as my usual deeply sentimental self. I've had a few moments since I arrived reflecting on how far I've come to be able to take myself all the way to Japan - as far as an entirely different hemisphere from my home - and this moment, while one of many joys not just now but in my life, feels particularly special coming from a game I have played for as long as it has existed and watched change from my childhood to now.
It would take too long to explain every reason why this poem in this game at this time impacted me so much, but I suppose that's what makes a game special, right?
Similarly this poem inspires. I see mirrored in it the desires and dreams I have to create something special and share a story that's uniquely mine. However long it takes, however much I struggle, these sorts of moments inspire and drive and I hope they can push me forward for years and years.
C418's accompanying score is just as beautiful as Gough's words. The Complementary shaders I play this world with add a sense of awe I have never experienced in any of the near 14 years I have played this game. The game of Minecraft is so special to me and to so many.
But right now, I'd like to share a meal with my new friends, in my now familiar dorm in Tokyo.
And after that...!
I might write a song.